Sweeten and Lighten Life
Perhaps, this Ramananama feast is cloying to some tastes; but, it is something that is ever fresh, that gives undying sweetness to the heart that is filled with the love of God. One single Name will yield fresh sweetness, fresh joy, every time it is rolled on the tongue. I have to tell you the things I have told you often before; for, until digestion is well established, medicine has to be taken, The face has to be washed day after day. One meal is not the end of the story; you have to eat, again and again.
To get angry is but the effort of a moment; but, to get peace, to become unaffected by the ups and downs of life, is the result of years of training in Vedanta. It can be well established only on the basis of the belief that all material things which fall within the range of sensuous experience are fundamentally non-existent. They are maya, products of illusion, where only One exists. You see corpses proceeding one after the other to the graveyard; but you move about unconcerned. You feel you are eternal. In fact, you are. That is, the real ‘you’, I mean. Just as the water you drink is eliminated as perspiration, the karma that you accumulate is eliminated through karma, gladly borne. So, bear both ‘mirth and moan’ with equal calm. Like the akasha (space) in the pot merging with the akasha outside the pot, silently, fully, with no trace of separation or distinctness, merge with the Universal. That is real sharanagati (surrender, salvation, liberation).
Today Is The Best Friend, Hold Fast To It
Rama is extolled as the ideal son, who acted according to his father’s wish, regardless of his own happiness. But, Bhishma is a better example in this respect. He acceded to a whim of his father and in so doing made even a greater sacrifice than Rama. Dasharatha made Rama an exile in the forest for fourteen years to satisfy the claims of Truth while Shantanu made his son give up the throne as well as a wedded life to satisfy a sensual desire of his senile body. As a matter of fact, it is not the obedience to the father’s whim that is important; it is the adherence to Satya and dharma, which is Rama’s forte.
Dhikshith said that kings, because they have to compromise with justice and truth sometime or other, usually go to the nether regions. His kingdom is, really speaking, his body. He must evince as much interest in the proper upkeep of the most distant part of his kingdom, as he does in the upkeep of his toe or scalp. Pain anywhere must be felt and remedied as quickly as pain in any part of his body. Such a king never goes to the nether regions. He is indeed thrice blessed. Janaka, for example, felt that all was His, not his. Though he had a body and all the commitments of kingship, he felt as if he was an A-sariri (without a body) and A-Samsari (without a family).
It requires all the strength one can collect to carry a load up-hill. Both the gear and the accelerator have to operate to haul a car up a steep. The Guru who taught you cannot do anything to haul it; he can only guide. The control of the senses, changing the mode of life and the habits of thought, have to be done by you. The senses say, “Why struggle? Eat, drink and be merry, while you can.” But, the Guru says, “Death lands on you without notice; overcome its fear now, before he calls.” Today is the true friend; yesterday has deceived you and gone; tomorrow is a doubtful visitor. Today is the best friend; hold fast to it.
Be Tranquil Amidst The Storms
Once when his eldest brother, Dharmaraja, promised to a mendicant yogi some help for a yajna (ritual sacrifice) and asked him to call the next day, Bhima ordered all drums to beat and all flags to fly, for, “My brother is certain to live until tomorrow! At least, that is what he believes will happen.”
Death stalks your footsteps like a tiger in the bush. So without further waste of time, endeavour to give up sloth and anger; be tranquil amidst the storms; mix in tranquil company. Let the fragrant smoke of divine thoughts, full of love to all, rise around you; why try to scatter fragrance from scent-sticks available in the market? The flame of jnana (experiential knowledge of Supreme Reality) can reduce to cinders the impulses inherited through many births and many experiences. In the heat of that crucible, dross is burnt and precious metal is isolated.
The Lord Is Sweet In Every One Of His Actions
Sadhana (spiritual effort) required regular habits and moderation in food, sleep, and exercise. Fasting weakens the intellect and reduces the strength of discrimination. The body, the mind and the spirit - all three must be equally looked after. Unless you have muscles of iron and nerves of steel, you cannot contain in your head the tremendously transforming idea of Advaita, of your being the Universal Self, the Eternal Reality itself! Lesser strength can only think in terms of servitude or subsidiary roles. To see the Truth as Truth, and the untruth as untruth, both the clarity of vision and courage of vision are needed.
The seven-walled fort-mamakara (feeling of mine and one’s own) and the six evil tendencies, kama (lust), krodha (anger), lobha (greed), moha (infatuation), mada (arrogance) and matsarya (jealousy) – has a garden in the centre and a lake, where the hamsa (divine bird) plays. It is the image of your own true self; become aware of it and you are saved. You have come into this Loka (world) to enter the presence of the Lokesha (Lord of the world). So do not tarry in wayside inns, mistaking them to be the goal. The Lord too will be longing for the arrival of the lost. He is like a cow yearning for its calf.
Once Krishna was in a fix; it was the birthday of Rukmini and it was also the anniversary of his marriage with Sathyabhama! Both the queens were awaiting His arrival in their palaces, but, Krishna, to the great mortification of the proud Sathyabhama, went to Rukmini and after sharing the feast with her, entered the palace of Sathyabhama. She was in an inconsolable mood of resentment, but, though she did not offer anything to Krishna out of pique, Krishna Himself picked up a few jambu fruits from the garden and ate them, appreciating all the while the care with which the queen was looking after the garden and the extraordinarily fine taste of every fruit that grew in it! Sathyabhama was thus encouraged to forget the sense of injury. The Lord is sweet in every one of His actions, movements, words and gestures. He is sweetness itself.
This Life Is A Dream You Have Taken To Be True
Take the instance of Rama. Bairagi Sastri recited a poem about the lotus feet of Rama, treading the stony, thorny jungle regions. But Kaikeyi had not realised this, when she asked that Rama should go into exile. She learnt about it and was horrified at what she had done only when she saw Rama, Sita and Lakshmana in the hermitage as she watched her son pleading with Rama to return to His throne. Rama never felt the thorn or the stone for He had devised the jungle Himself, in order to infuse faith in the sages and nip their fears.
As a matter of fact, what other functions have those feet than warding off the hurdles on the path of bhaktas? The bearer alone knows the weight of the load on his shoulder. The tiniest suffering in you causes the same suffering here also. There is an old woman from Salem here, since a week; her son, a young man of twenty-five years, is insane and cannot attend to his needs. She does not know how much I was affected; but, I was inquiring, “Did he take his morning coffee?” and telling her, “Carry food to him and feed him; he is hungry.” Her anxiety was just one-sixtyfourth of Mine! You think that I pay attention only to those who sit in front, but, I see all and I am with all, wherever they may be. Only those who have been blessed will know, not the rest.
No fuel, no fire. No sadhana, no Sankalpa (subconscious desire). Pour oil and light the wick. You are on a pilgrimage to the beyond, so, you cannot long dwell in this beneath. Some time or other, sooner or later, this birth or the next, you have to realise that this is but a dream you took to be true; you have to pack up and march. This is asat (non-Being); go towards the Sat (Being). This is tamas (darkness); this is the realm of death. Proceed towards the Jyoti (effulgent light); proceed towards the realm where immortality reigns.
Let The Desire To Be Saved Sprout In You
The tree might appear to be dry; but, it will bloom; it will bear fruit; do not despair. I shall, make it sprout, provided the sap of repentance it still running. Come just one step forward, I shall take a hundred towards you. Shed just one tear, I shall wipe a hundred from your eyes. I bless only thus! May your Ananda (Bliss) grow.
When the night grows chill, you draw the rug tighter around you, is it not? So too when grief assails you, draw the warmth of the name of the Lord closer round your mind. Out of all the crores of Indians, you alone have gained this contact, through your good luck. Let at least the desire to be saved sprout in you; I shall see that it grows and gives fruit, provided you yearn and try. To pour the nectar of grace, the vessel must be cleansed. Clean it and demand the nectar; do not grieve later that you missed the chance, when it had come within reach. You will not know Me in a trice, or even in days. It is something that has to be realised by stages, in due course, through viveka, vairagya and vichakshana (discrimination, non-attachment, clear-sightedness).
You have been squatting for four hours and some of you might be squirming and feeling an ache in the back. But it is not ache. Pray that you may get this feeling all through life, for you have been receiving the teaching that will sweeten and lighten life itself.
Prasanthi Nilayam, 6-2-1963